Thursday, March 3, 2011

As physical space becomes less important in many ways due to cheep communication, entertainment piped to ones computer, video conferencing, air travel, and high speed rail, why is clustering into cities occurring? What are the economies of scale and/or scope that are so facilitated by in person contact? The instant cities described are unlikely to have the uniqueness of old fashioned cities so the rational for visiting them for fun is diminished.

I wonder how planned these cities are. Is the location of all restaurants and the chains that are to fill the slots predetermined? Have the rights to operate all stores of a single type or to sell a single product been auctioned as in airports. An example is I can rarely get a $1 ice cream in a McDonald's at an airport because the exclusive rights to sell frozen deserts have been sold to the specialist. I'm afraid that the ability to plan will corrupt and rather than set up bastions of economic freedom and personal expression by providing basic private property, low taxes, and tolerable justice along with some infrastructure a high tech mercantilism will emerge.